We all know how important digital data backup is. It is the most smartest activity by any person owning a computer system including anything that stores data digitally. What is more blessing than the fact that cloud storage is now coming free or very cheap? If you are opting for the free service, than the only investment you are doing is for getting a good unlimited Internet connection. Even if you are opting to pay for getting more cloud storage space, the advantage of getting access to your data from anywhere overcomes it. Thanks to the increasing number of cloud backup services and the intense competition among these services, you can now get “virtually” unlimited storage for just a few bucks per month.

The domain is still in its infancy and for this reason we do face problems using them but we can ignore them. The advantages outweigh the disadvantages and things should improve as the service becomes old. Continue reading after the break to see five coolest cloud backup solutions available for you.

Dropbox

Dropbox doesn’t needs an introduction. It is a one of the first cloud backup solution that made people realize cloud backup power. Dropbox comes handy for backing up files that we use the most. 2 GB of storage space is available for free, while with subscriptions users can get up to 100 GB. Teams can get terabytes of storage. Free users can increase their storage quota up to a total of 8 GB by referring their friends.

Sign-up for Dropbox Now (Referral Link)

Free Storage available* : 2 GB
Pricing* : $9.99 a month for 50 GB, $19.99 a month for 100 GB
Mobile Apps Available : Yes (Android, iOS, BlackBerry)

SugarSync

SugarSync is another good cloud backup service that also lets you sync and share files anytime, anywhere. The service is competitively priced and offers 5 GB of free accounts.

SugarSync makes it easy to back up, share and access your files, anytime, anywhere. With SugarSync you get online cloud storage for all your files — documents, music, photos, and video. When you make a change or add files on any of your PC or Mac computers, SugarSync automatically syncs your files to the cloud, where you can get access to them from any Internet-connected device — including your smartphone or iPad.

Sign-up for SugarSync Now (Referral Link)

Free Storage available* : 5 GB
Pricing* : Plans starts from $4.99 a month for 30 GB to $24.99 a month for 250 GB
Mobile Apps Available : Yes (Android, iOS, Windows, BlackBerry, Symbian)

SpiderOak

SpiderOak took a different approach when we compare it with the above two services. It offers free online backup, sync, sharing, remote access and storage. All in one a complete solution for a computer users backup needs. Another security feature of SpiderOak is users can only change their password using the downloaded client and not through the web interface. This ensures their zero-knowledge privacy environment. Users can add more storage space to their account if they exceed the limit, but the increments comes in the size of 100 GB.

SpiderOak provides an easy, secure and consolidated free online backup, sync, sharing, access & storage solution for Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux (Ubuntu, Debian, Fedora & openSUSE)

Sign-up for SpiderOak Now (Referral Link)

Free Storage available* : 5 GB
Pricing* : $10 per month per 100 GB increment.
Mobile Apps Available : Yes (Android, iOS, N900 Maemo)

CX

CX is a cloud storage service that allows users to back up, synchronize, share, and manage their documents, photos, music and videos across all of their devices – which includes desktops, laptops, netbooks, and mobile devices. CX offers 10 GB of free storage space while the paid plans are the same as that offered by Dropbox.

CX is a new kind of cloud experience that takes content to the next level with a range of unique features: secure storage, real-time syncing, public and private sharing, interactive group collaboration, and intelligent discovery. Easily organize your content, access it on the go, share it with friends or publish it online — you decide what and when. Want to discuss a file with a team? CX does that too with group functionality and a unique file commenting system.

Sign-up for CX Now (Referral Link)

Free Storage available* : 10 GB
Pricing* : $9.99 a month for 50 GB, $19.99 a month for 100 GB.
Mobile Apps Available : Yes (iOS, Windows, Android and BlackBerry App coming soon)

IDrive

IDrive assists you to create multiple accounts and let other people manage the files too. If a users computer crashes, the user can order a portable hard drive from them for quick retrieval of data.

Sign-up for IDrive Now (Referral Link)

Free Storage available* : 5 GB
Pricing* : Plans starts from $4.95 a month for 150 GB.
Mobile Apps Available : Yes (Android, iOS)

What do you do to back up your important data? Are we missing out any solutions that offers similar kind of services or do you use a specific solution in the list above? Let us know in the comments below.

*At the time of publishing. If a service changes their pricing structure or changes their free storage quota, please comment below, we will update it.

Disclosure: Sign-up links are referral links that will earn both you and me extra storage space. If you don’t want to use the referral link, simply click on the name of the service at the start of its description to visit their homepage.

Windows Live SkyDrive (formerly known as Windows Live Folders) is a part of Microsoft’s Windows Live range of online services. It is a free online storage service from Microsoft that offers 25 GB of online storage space, with each file limited to 50 MB, for its users to upload their favorite photos, files, media, etc. It uses Windows Live ID to control access to the user’s files, allowing them to keep the files private, share with contacts, or make the files public. Publicly shared files do not need a Windows Live ID to access. So as long as you have a Hotmail or MSN email account, you have a SkyDrive.

Even though Microsoft is offering so much of online storage space for free, they have not yet provided any easy and user-friendly way to upload files or manage uploaded files from the desktop. But you will now be able to easily access and manage SkyDrive files by using a free and easy-to-use Windows Explorer extension called as SkyDrive Explorer.

SkyDrive Explorer uses the standard Microsoft library for work with Windows Live Id services. Your personal information does not leave this library and even is not passed to SkyDrive Explorer engine. Also, the traffic with online storage goes through HTTPS protocol that protects data from snoopers. So SkyDrive Explorer is secure too. SkyDrive Explorer works both in 32-bit and 64-bit Microsoft Windows OS. Minimal required OS is Windows XP, and SkyDrive Explorer will successfully work in Windows Vista, Windows Server 2003 and 2008, and Windows 7.

SkyDrive Explorer allows applying some operations for group of objects that is not possible in web browser. This increases performance of work with SkyDrive. Examples of multi-operations are renaming objects, deleting group of objects, copying folders with sub folders and files from SkyDrive.

SkyDrive Explorer Features

• View the structure and contents of folders in SkyDrive.
• View files information (type, size, creation date in GMT format).
• Create new root folders and sub folders.
• Copy files into the storage.
• Delete files and folders.
• Copy files from the storage to the computer.
• Copy folders and sub folders from the storage to the computer keeping their structure.
• Use drag & drop for files operations.
• Rename files and folders.
• Create links to SkyDrive folders on your computer.
• Does not need to install and configure any more programs or ActiveX components.
• Copy URL of the selected object(s) to the Clipboard.
• Automatic check for the latest version.
• Bidirectional languages support.

[ Download SkyDrive Explorer ]